Mitsuaki Shimojo

Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo NY 14260-1030
Office: 640 Baldy Hall
Phone: 716-645-0131
Email: shimojo at buffalo.edu

The overarching approach that has guided my research interests is to integrate the study of discourse and grammar, challenging the conventional practice of separating language structure from speaker usage or preferences in discourse. In this general direction, I am particularly interested in understanding how language is used in discourse and how grammar interacts with discourse pragmatics. Furthermore, I want to explore how language is used in the discourse of second-language speakers and how it compares to that of so-called native speakers.

Research Focus

My research has focused on the Japanese language, specifically in the areas of lexical-semantic and psycholinguistic properties of categorization, the syntax-pragmatics interface, sentence structures in discourse, and a comparative analysis of L1 and L2 Japanese grammar. Current projects include analyses of L1 and L2 Japanese discourse concerning argument and sentence forms, as well as the syntax-semantics-discourse interface in Role and Reference Grammar.

I am also involved in the following collaborative research:
- Focus sensitive particles in formal grammar: a cross-linguistic approach (PI: Katalin Balogh, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf).
  This project aims to develop a uniform and cross-linguistic account of focus sensitive particles in Hungarian, Georgian and Japanese. Specifically, it seeks to provide a cross-linguistically valid and descriptive characterization of information structure properties and interplay between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
- Japanese and English as Lingua Francas in international co-learning, in particular, discourse studies of contact and native situations for the use of Japanese as a lingua franca (PI: Mitsuko Takei, Hiroshima Shudo University).
  This project includes discourse analysis of in-person and online L1 and L2 Japanese conversations in three types of situations: L1 Japanese only, L1-L2 Japanese, and L2 Japanese only.

Representative Publications

Shimojo, M. (2024). Salience of Information in Japanese: Discourse and the Syntax-Pragmatics Interface. Cambridge University Press.

Shimojo, M. (2019). Topicalization in Japanese cooking discourse. Open Linguistics 5. 511-531.

Lee, E., and M. Shimojo (2016). Mismatch of topic between Japanese and Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25(1), 81-112.

Shimojo, M. (2005). Argument Encoding in Japanese Conversation. Hampshire, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Shimojo, M. (2004). Quantifier float and information processing: a case study from Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics 36, 375-405.

Shimojo, M. (2002). Functional theories of island phenomena: the case of Japanese. Studies in Language 26, 67-124.

Shimojo, M. (1997). The role of the general category in the maintenance of numeral classifier systems: The case of tsu and ko in Japanese. Linguistics 35, 705-733.

Editorial Positions

Series Editor, Studies in Role and Reference Grammar (De Gruyter)
Section Editor, Open Linguistics
Editor, Journal CAJLE